Rama's Screen

The photo above is from Reuters, which is also where this info is coming from. At today’s Oscar luncheon, the producers of the 82nd Annual Academy Awards, Adam Shankman and Bill Mechanic told all the 121 nominees there, that this year, to kill those long, boring thank you speeches, the winners will get to do two speeches.
One will happen onstage telling audiences what winning an Oscar means to them and then a second one will happen backstage where winners can say ‘Thank Yous’ to whomever they want (producers, fellow actors, mom, dad, etc.) to a ‘Thank You Cam’.
I actually like this idea, it’s brilliant, maybe for once we could have an Oscar show that’s only 90 minutes long, cross your fingers. I understand that winners can get so overwhelmed that they’d wanna mention every name they could possibly remember and then the music would have to cut it short.
But I think it’s better off if the speech is straightforward and heartfelt much like the one that artist Markéta Irglová gave when she won Oscar for Best Song “Falling Slowly” for the movie Once. She said “fair play to those who dare to dream!” I loved it.. even to this day.
What do you think about this new 2 Thank Yous rule?

It’s that time of year again, time for AMC BEST PICTURE SHOWCASE 2010, where one of the biggest theater chains we’ve grown to know and love is bringing back movies that are currently nominated for Oscar’s highest honor. Obviously AVATAR is still in theaters so that’s not going to change. But since we have 10 nominations this time, AMC is spreading the marathon over two weekends, one on Saturday of February 27th and the next one is on Saturday, March 6th.
So at AMC’s official website, there’s a poll to take your vote on which four titles would you like to watch, alongside AVATAR, on each weekend, starting with the first of course.
Head on OVER THERE to start voting. I think I’m too old to be sitting for hours, watching movies I’ve already seen before.. but hey, maybe you have more energy than me, just make sure they give you bathroom breaks.

Oscars.org has unleashed the poster for the upcoming 82nd Annual Academy Awards. As I’ve mentioned before, the nominations for the 82nd Academy Awards® will be announced tomorrow morning, Tuesday, February 2 at 5:30 A.M. (PT) by AMPAS President Tom Sherak and Oscar nominee Anne Hathaway. So I figured I’d list my own predictions on who and which movie that I think would get nominated just for the top categories, feel free to add your own list in the comment section… Read the rest of this entry »

The AMPAS must be really desperate and running out of option, they must really want to boost some rating and keep people watching the Oscars instead of falling asleep while watching the Oscars. Ever since Hugh Jackman turned down the offer to host for the second time in a row, they thought ‘mm.. why don’t we have a duo instead of just one host?!’ so they asked Tropic Thunder stars Ben Stiller and Robert Downey Jr. but they said no. I can see Ben Stiller hosting, but RDJ, eh not so much. And now the job officially belongs to Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin… Read the rest of this entry »

Although I never could understand why he feels the need to keep doing Wolverine movie til he dies, I can understand why he has turned down the offer to host another Oscar gig. According to Variety, Hugh Jackman doesn’t want to do the job two years in a row which I think is wise decision… Read the rest of this entry »

Ya know what would make this day glorious? If for some astronomical reason, director James Cameron released the teaser trailer for AVATAR. That would make every movie blog online go bananas! But since that’s not happening yet (clock’s ticking though), I figured let’s talk about something else for the time being with the little help of our imagination and dreams. As you know, the Oscars changed its rule recently, it has increased the number of movies allowed to be nominated for Best Picture from 5.. to 10. Some say it’s a good idea because fairness will be achieved while others say it’s a bit too much, kinda like adding another zero in the dollar amount of what Steve Jobs makes in a year.. what’s the point?!

Anyways, I’m sure we can all agree that we can’t fully say the 10 best movies of the year because obviously we haven’t got to the end of the year yet to know which title is better than the other. But let’s say you can foresee the future and imagine yourself on February 2nd, 2010 when AMPAS President Sid Ganis and some god-knows-who actor/actress announce the nominees. Which movies do you hope will get nominated? Here are my picks.. pretty fair if you think about it, there’s foreign language, animated, action, sci-fi, thriller, definitely drama. Keep in mind that I haven’t seen half of these, check them out after the jump… Read the rest of this entry »

Earlier this week, a weird but true info hit the web, Oscars decided to change the number of films to be nominated for Best Picture from 5.. to 10. Now that’s drastic! I know that many of us at the end of the year usually could list 10 movies that we think are the top best but let’s face it.. some of those titles may not be Oscar worthy. For example, at the end of this year, you can bet that THE HANGOVER is going to be on my list but doesn’t mean that I think it deserves Oscar nod for Best Picture.. my point is.. can the voters actually come up with 10 great worthy and fair nominees?!

While that question remains, another one just came up today. Via ropeofsilicon, Motion Pictures of Arts and Sciences has decided to rock the boat in the Best Original Song category.
Keep in mind that the way it’s always been done was that no more than 5 but no fewer than 3 nominees in this category.

Ok, now here’s the change..the New Rule states that if no song achieves a minimum average score of 8.25 in the voting, there will be no original song nominees and therefore no Oscar presented for the category. Holy crap!
Basically, what it says is that, depends on the voting score.. there can now be 2 nominees (If only 1 song achieves the required minimum, that and the next song with highest score get to be nominated) or… there can be NONE at all.
Unfreakin’believable! After all these years.. I can’t believe there’s a chance that the category that’s given The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Melissa Etheridge Oscars in the past may be absent at next year’s Oscars?!

I don’t know about you but I got a feeling the Oscars don’t appreciate original songs written for movies anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I thought the great A.R. Rahman deserved his win for Slumdog Millionaire but I was disappointed that Bruce Springsteen’s song for the movie THE WRESTLER wasn’t recognized and the year before, Eddie Vedder’s soundtrack for INTO THE WILD got snubbed. Not to mention that this category is usually filled with original songs for Disney movies.
Some say this new rule is a good idea because Original Song category is part of the big reason why the show takes too long.. with this elimination, no song has to be performed at the event.

The guy you see in the image above is Sid Ganis, he’s the president of the Academy Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and he’s announced today that next year, at the 82nd Oscars, there will be 10 nominees for Best Picture category instead of the usual 5.

“After more than six decades, the Academy is returning to some of its earlier roots, when a wider field competed for the top award of the year,” said Ganis. “The final outcome, of course, will be the same – one Best Picture winner – but the race to the finish line will feature 10, not just five, great movies from 2009.”
“Having 10 Best Picture nominees is going allow Academy voters to recognize and include some of the fantastic movies that often show up in the other Oscar categories, but have been squeezed out of the race for the top prize,”
“I can’t wait to see what that list of ten looks like when the nominees are announced in February.”

I know what you’re thinking… this decision maybe was motivated by the fact that some thought it was unfair The Dark Knight wasn’t nominated for Best Picture at the last Oscars.
Or maybe this is just a strategy to adapt to this crappy economy.. that they just want to have more nominees so the award show can get even longer, allowing more ads that bring in money.
Of course, they’ll never admit to those assumptions of mine.

AMPAS actually had more than 5 nominees in its early years. For 9 years there were 10 nominees. The 16th Academy Awards (1943) was the last year to include a field of that size; Casablanca was named Best Picture. In 1931/32, there were eight nominees and in 1934 and 1935 there were 12 nominees.

Do you think making it 10 contenders would give it a fair playing field? Does this mean Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince might get a chance or Pixar’s UP might be recognized in this category instead of just Best Animated feature? Or is this strategy too…overwhelming?

The 82nd Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Tuesday, February 2. The ceremony honoring films for 2009 will again take place at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, and will be televised live by the ABC Television Network on on March 7th, 2010

Whoa! Now this is crazy.. I’m all the way over here in Tennessee, the land of nothing much to do.. and then bam! All of a sudden there’s a blog that claimed to have leaked the Oscar winners for this weekend. Now granted, it may not be credible, so stop placing your bets..yes that means you with the cash on one hand and the phone on the other about to call a bookie.
I say this list is bullcrap for now, but it’s here just for harmless fun, if you’re curious to see who and which movie might win for whatever category, check it out after the jump. Most of the winners are pretty obvious… but I for one find it hard to believe that Amy Adams would win Best Supporting actress over Taraji P. Henson and Viola Davis who are clearly the better candidates.

Check out the Oscar Winners Leaked List…
Read the rest of this entry »

This Segment is Part of my OSCAR OBSERVATIONS ‘09

When Crash beat Brokeback Mountain in 2006, I heard some people cry foul. I thought both movies were outstanding but yes, in a way that’s very obvious, Brokeback Mountain was more groundbreaking, whereas Crash just took the usual interconnected plotlines that other movies had done and elevated the complexities of the issues by injecting racial tension. Some say the Golden Globes Awards was more brave for awarding Best Picture to Brokeback Mountain and calling the Oscars homophobic for playing it safe. I wonder what the world would be like if Brokeback Mountain had won the top honor that year?

This year Milk is one of the contenders and it also takes on a gay character,..well, correction, the movie carries many gay characters played by straight actors. I supposed that’s a way that it can be considered great acting (Tom Hanks won for Philadelphia)
Milk’s chances of winning Best Picture is rather slim, mainly because there’s a certain movie called Slumdog Millionaire that has become a fly in its soup. Unlike Brokeback Mountain, that became the subject of hilarity by late night shows and comedians everywhere, people love the movie Milk, well, people that are open-minded and not uptight that is. The drama based on a true story of the first gay person to hold public office is nothing short of inspiring, original, and emotionally powerful. But people love Slumdog Millionaire even more for its old school romantic story, a simple man overcoming a lifetime of struggle to reunite with the one he loves.

If Slumdog Millionaire beat Milk this year, it won’t be because the Oscars are playing it safe or homophobic, and I doubt there will be people crying foul, shouting ‘unfair’.. it will only be because Slumdog is a better movie. MILK will probably win some categories on technicalities but that’s about it,..because the amazing Sean Penn will lose to Mickey Rourke, Director Gus Van Sant will lose to Danny Boyle, and Josh Brolin will lose to Heath Ledger, deservingly so. Although I think Dustin Lance Black might win for Best Original Screenplay.